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The May Day procession was quite an occasion. The men who drove the bin wagons would decorate their horses and it was a very colourful event, and very competitive as I think prizes were awarded. We usually stood in Smithdown Road, having walked through the Mystery. In Smithdown Road (almost opposite Ullet Road) there was an open-fronted emporium - a forerunner of M&S I understood - and in the weeks before Christmas it was a very exciting place to spend one's pennies (accrued doing 'messages' for the neighbours).
I was remembering all the shops and premises on the High Street from Southdale Road towards the Clock. There was a large Co-op at the bottom of Eastdale, a tiny sweet shop and premises where we took the batteries for the wireless to be re-charged. Then came Kellitt's jam works - it was lovely when they were boiling strawberry jam. There were several houses with long gardens down to the road, and then Francis & McKay's the cake shop. Beyond Sandown Lane was a butchers, a greengrocers, the pub, a chandlers and then Fuzzy (Frederick) Newcombe, the draper who also did undertaking. The poetess's house came next, and Dr Stack lived in No.19. He was a white-haired bachelor, very kind, and charged 2s 6d per visit including medication. Those who were on 'Lloyd George', which was free, went to Dr Parkinson opposite. There was a dentist next door.
When I was a small child (not too robust) my father would take me and several cousins, who lived at 19 Eastdale, to his allotment which was on ground now occupied by Waldgrave Road and other houses. One day, before we returned down Long Lane, the dog I was holding dragged me across the gritty forefront to the gypsy encampment and the rope works. My father was not very popular when we got back, as I was filthy dirty and bleeding profusely.
During the 1940s, my father rang the bell at Holy Trinity on Sunday mornings. My three children would take the tram/bus to Penny Lane from Allerton (we then lived near the Police School) and he would meet up with them to visit my mother at Southfield Road. They were often shown all the family graves, which delayed the sweets and biscuit treat they knew lay ahead!
I was visiting my mother on a weekly basis into the 1960s. She didn't go out, so I used to collect her pension at the Post Office and then have a session at the Library to get her supplied for a week. Eventually she went into care, but I continued to visit from Nantwich each Thursday until she died. My father had died while we were still living in Mather Avenue. Yes, I remember Earle Football Club, and the White Star Line recreation ground at the end of Church Road.
There is so much I remember - one becomes nostalgic with old age!
ANN SIMMS
(née Hill)
Nantwich, Cheshire
November 2004
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